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Andy Weir
His Website: http://www.andyweirauthor.com/ "He is also a lifelong space nerd and a devoted hobbyist of subjects like relativistic physics, orbital mechanics, and the history of manned spaceflight." His Life Andy Taylor Weir is the Author of the book that The Martian was based on. Andy Weir was born June 16th, 1972. He is an American novelist and software engineer known internationally for his debut novel The Martian, which was later adapted into a film of the same name directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain as well as other well known actors, which was released October 2, 2015. He received the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016. Weir began writing science fiction in his 20s and published work on his website for years. His first work to gain significant attention was "The Egg", a short story that has been adapted into a number of YouTube videos and a one-act play. Weir is best known for his first published novel, The Martian. He wrote the book to be as scientifically accurate as possible and his writing included extensive research into orbital mechanics, conditions on Mars, the history of manned spaceflight, and botany. He even wrote his own program in order to predict the best launch dates and the orbit distances between Earth and Mars. He was a computer programmer but given his recent success has quit his day job in order to focus more on writing as that had always been his dream. His Writing Originally published as a free serial on his website, some readers requested he make it available on Kindle. First sold for 99 cents, the novel made it to the Kindle bestsellers list. Weir was then approached by a literary agent and sold the rights of the book to Crown Publishing Group. The print version (slightly edited from the original) of the novel debuted at #12 on The New York Times bestseller list. The Wall Street Journal called the novel "the best pure sci-fi novel in years". A fan-fiction story written by Weir, "Lacero" was published in the 2016 edition of "Ready Player One", making it canonical to the book's fictional universe. The work functions as a prequel to the main novel. In 2016, Weir released "The Principles of Uncertainty" a collection of short stories on the TAPAS app platform for short fiction. Originally Weir was working on his second novel, initially titled [[Zhek|"Zhek"]]. He describes it as "A more traditional sci-fi novel. It has aliens, telepathy, faster-than-light travel, etc." However, he has put "Zhek" on hold for another more science based story about a woman who lives in a civilisation on the moon and is also a criminal, set in the 2080-2090 called "Artemis" (''available to pre-order on Waterstones) which is expected to release 13th November 2017. Biography Weir was born and raised in California. He is an only child. His father is an accelerator physicist and his mother an electrical-engineer who divorced when he was 8. Weir grew up reading classic science fiction such as the works of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov. At the age of 15, he began working as a computer programmer for Sandia National Laboratories. He studied computer science at UC San Diego, although he did not graduate. He worked as a programmer for several software companies, including AOL, Palm, MobileIron and Blizzard, where he worked on the video game ''Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. Weir began writing science fiction in his 20's and published work on his website for years. He also authored a humour web comic called "Casey and Andy" featuring fictionalised "mad scientist" versions of himself and his friends (such as writer Jennifer Brozek) from 2002 to 2008; he also briefly worked on another comic called "Chesire Crossing" bridging Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz. The attention these gained him has been attributed as later helping launch his writing career, following the failure to publish his first novel attempt called "Theft of Pride". His first work to gain significant attention was "The Egg", a short story that has been adapted into a number of YouTube videos and a one-act play. He currently lives in Mountain View, California, in a rented two-bedroom maisonette. Since he has a deep fear of flying, he never visited the set of the film adaptation of The Martian in Budapest, where most of the scenes set on Mars were shot at Korda Studios. In 2015, with the help of therapy and medication, he was able to fly to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center, and to San Diego to attend Comic-Con. Weir has stated that he is agnostic. He considers himself to be a fiscally conservative, social liberal, and tries to keep his political views out of his writing. His Works Novels and Long Stories * The Martian (2011) * Bonnie MacKenzie: The Life Story of a Mermaid ''(an on-going story) * ''Moriarty (Holmesian fanfiction) * The Romana Chronicles/''The Xoloans'' (Doctor Who fanfiction) * Theft of Pride * The Principles of Uncertainty (2016) Serial Novel Short Stories * The Egg * Diary of an AssCan * The Chef * * Access * Annie's Day * The Real Deal * Meeting Sarah * The Midtown Butcher * Antihypoxiant * Bored World * Twarrior * Lacero (2016 print release) — prominent Ready Player One fanfiction * Rat Web Comics * Casey and Andy